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Stuff.co.nz has reported (19/07/2014) that many of Housing New Zealand (HNZ) properties still remain uninsulated despite the Government spending $30m over the past six years.

The Energy Efficiency Retrofit programme was hoping to provide home insulation to all HNZ properties that were built before 2000.

As at December 31 2013, HNZ said that 48,030 of their properties had received insulation. They could not give a figure on how many of its 70,000 homes remained uninsulated. Many of these homes are in cold zones like Canterbury or earthquake damaged Christchurch.

Marcus Bosch, general manager of property services, revealed that HNZ does not have a central record of uninsulated properties. Instead, numerous databases were checked manually and regional teams provided information.

Some properties built before 2000 had concrete floors or inaccessible roof and floor cavities so they could not receive insulation. In these cases, other energy efficient changes were made such as fixing draughts.

The "Warrant of Fitness" launched in May by Housing Minister Nick Smith, applies to 69,000 HNZ properties. There is an expectation that all of the homes that are capable, will have been modernised or retrofitted by this year.

Caroline Shone, Community Energy Action (CEA) chief executive, estimated that half a million homes in NZ are still in need of insulation, especially those built before the turn of the century.